Monday, March 03, 2008

More middle-name fun and games

From a recent press release from 8th U.S. Congressional District (Northwest Suburban) Republican candidate Steve Greenberg, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean:

Steve Greenberg re-affirmed his support for the newly independent nation of Kosovo and called on Melissa Luburich Bean to follow his lead, by denouncing the Serbian violence against America and the people of Kosovo, withdrawing her sponsorship of controversial H. Res. 445 and by returning campaign donations from the anti-American Serbian Unity Conference. The United States and eighteen other major world powers, including
Great Britain, France, and Germany, have officially recognized Kosovo
as a sovereign nation, but Melissa Luburich Bean stands against
Kosovo’s freedom and independence.

"Luburich" is Bean's maiden name, according to her campaign, but she uses only the initial L. She was adopted, but her parents are of Serbian descent.

Jonathan Lipman, spokesman for the Bean campaign offered this no-comment comment: ""As a rule, the congresswoman does not respond to ethnically and religiously divisive statements."

I happen to have a shorter comment on Greenberg's effort to introduce his opponent's ethnic identity into the race: Shame!

UPDATE: The Greenburg campaign responds:

Melissa Bean uses her Serbian heritage to help her raise campaign money. She is listed on the Federal Election Commission website as “Melissa Luburich Bean." She can't use her full name to raise over $24K from Serbian Unity Congress activists and then cry foul when other people use her name as well. She sponsored legislation that shares the same viewpoint as Vladimir Putin and as the Co-Chair of the Serbian caucus she stood silently while the American embassy was burned in Belgrade last week by Serbian extremists. Of course Ms Bean won't comment on this, because she doesn't want the people of the 8th district to know that she would deny the people of Kosovo, who have suffered the worst sort of government oppression, their liberty and independence.... Brad Goodman, spokesman

Once again I am calling on Melissa Bean to denounce the violence at the American Embassy in Belgrade, withdraw her sponsorship of H. Res 445, and to return the over $24,000 she received from the Serbian Unity Congress. Her silence even when given the opportunity to renounce violence against the American Embassy in Belgrade speaks volumes.... Steve Greenberg, candidate

Comments

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Not only is this obnoxious but it is a truly stupid line of attack. This will not get him even one vote. In fact, it may lose him votes because most people in the district who are interested at all in this issue are probably pro-Serbian. Who is advising this guy?

As I've said before, in this very Republican-leaning district, Melissa Bean has given all of her Republican challengers little, if anything, to aim at. Her votes (particularly her anti-union stances) have endeared her to the great majority of her consituency, and even riled up some in her party. Rather than "RINO" (Republican In Name Only), some Dems might label her a Democrat In Name Only. Her votes seem to fairly reflect the wishes of her constituents. Despite the heavy Republican population in her district, the national Republican Party would be well-served to spend their money elsewhere - on more winnable, closer contests.

Steve Greenberg will soon return to deserved anonymity (if indeed he ever left it), and Melissa Bean will continue to represent her district as ably as she has. Voters are tired of cheap shots and taunts made by candidates who think they're still on the playground. He's pathetic. Is this really the best Republicans can do? Or do they actually believe the LImbaugh/O'Reilly/Coulter vote is some huge untapped majority in this district? (In which case they're delusional.)

It's pretty funny that someone in an ongoing campaign would mimic a tactic from the presidential campaign that has been so roundly criticized.

This is a pretty old campaign trick - associating your oppponent with a hated group or person; only instead of using rumor or falsehood, you use their middle name. It's like turning identity politics on its head.

Good thing for Greenberg we seem to have gotten past the old stereotypes, or his last name may have disqualified him for elective office in all but a few areas of Illinois.

"Luburich" hardly has the impact of "Hussein." Also, replacement of what was probably the final "c" with "ch" robs the name of much of its ethnicity. (The Luburics were probably tired of being called "Luburick.") It's a weak, silly effort by Greenberg.

Eric Zorn and none of the posters seem interested in or even remarked on the substance of Steve Greenberg's charge that Melissa Bean has introduced House Resolution 445, which opposes the independence of Kosovo. Greenberg, I think, has made a perfectly legitimate point by citing Representative Bean's maiden name. Her Serbian heritage does indicate to a degree to the voters why she is against Kosovo's independence.
Obama's middle name had absolutely nothing to do with his positions on anything.

While she's not nearly as conservative as the man she replaced (but then again, who was more conservative than Phil Crane?), but Congressman Bean has proven to be a real Blue Dog Democrat, even targeted for defeat by leftists within the party (the Open Left/DFA/Howard Dean crowd). Doesn't look like the GOP will be able to lay a glove on her.

The Bean spokesman should have said, "As a rule, the congresswoman does not respond to ethnically and religiously divisive statements, but in this case we encourage our opponent to spend as much money as possible promoting this bizarre line of attack."

As a voter in Bean's district, I can't begin to describe how devastatingly effective Mr. Greenberg's press release was for me. Her middle name is Luburich? I'll still vote for her over this twit, but I plan to tease her about it relentlessly.

As Robert Pruter said above, pro-Serbia bias may very well be a legitimate campaign issue (although I'm not sure how many voters will care). But if this Greenberg thinks that Bean is non-objective about Serbia because of her parents' ethnic heritage, he should have the cojones to come out and say so explicitly.

Greenberg conveniently failed to mention that the resolution was bipartisan: Three of the five co-sponsors are Republicans, including Peter Roskam and Dan Burton.

It's a valid issue to bring up, but one wonders about how meaningful it actually is to district residents. The way it's couched is pretty sleazy, though--not just the use of the middle name but the implication that Bean or the resolution somehow supports "the Serbian violence against America and the people of Kosovo."

Ahh. Did Greenberg forget that one of the planners of the terror plot against our servicemen and women at Ft. Dix was a fundamental islamist Kosovar Albanian? Short memory, I guess. Maybe he's folding on homeland security.

Lest anyone make an incorrect inference from Tim1979's comment, neither the Lake County DFA nor the national DFA opposed Rep. Bean in the primary.

And, sheesh - with a name like Greenberg how does one expect to win a name-calling contest in the 8th District? And then to go about it in a way that highlights that your opponent is Eastern Orthodox Christian?

That wouldn't fly in the Lake County I remember - things must have changed since they stopped publishing The Spotlight.

Now I have to skulk off to contemplate the dubious notion that I'm in full agreement with a comment by S. Sherman.

What really annoys me is that Greenberg seemingly believes this is a big issue in the district. Earth to Steve: we're concerned about a lot of things here, but if this is your biggest priority we suggest you go run elsewhere. Key word: go.

Greenberg is that name of Jewish heritage? If it is, he should know better than anyone else that those who fights Islamic Terrorists, like the Serbs do, are his friends.
Certainly he is misguided, if he thinks that Israel and the U.S.are in the fight against Islamic Terror alone.

In this age of the War on Terror,he deserves not one vote from any thinking person.

Interesting how someone named "Greenberg" would support the same policy Germany does, considering the Germans tried to wipe out over 6 million of his relatives. Yet, he finds it suitable to attack a person who supposedly supports a Putin backed plan. Last I checked, Putin never attacked the US, but those people just given their own piece of land kinda did...

There is so much wrong with your Press Release of February 27th, 2008 that each point deserves to be addressed, and perhaps that’s a good thing for you, because that means you are getting the voters’ attention. I hope that this response to your press release gets some attention as well, for I intend to circulate it as widely as possible. The points you make in the release are indicative of a bigotry that has developed in the United States against a group of people that has never been anything but a loyal friend and ally of America.

In your release you attack your democratic rival for the congressional seat you are seeking by taking cheap shots at her nationality, specifically her Serbian nationality, by specifying her maiden name in your attack upon her. Yes, Mr. Greenberg, Melissa Luburich Bean is of Serbian descent, and perhaps this makes her especially qualified to try to motivate her peers in congress to seek a fair and just resolution for the problem of Kosovo. Too many of her peers, including those now running for the highest office in our land, have not sought a fair and just resolution. Instead, they have actually magnified the problem in the Balkans, a problem that won’t just go away. Kosovo has indeed become an American problem, not just a Serbian/Albanian problem, so it’s understandable that you, as a political candidate running for office would be interested in how things play out there. What is not understandable is how you can pass judgment upon Congresswoman Bean when you are so clearly completely ignorant of the issues regarding the fate of Kosovo.

I’m going to include the entire content of your press release below so that the readers of this letter will know exactly what I’m referring to and they can refer to your own words in making their decisions about who they will vote for this year. This way, even if you do remove the press release from your website, the voters will have your words saved.

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED ON FEBRUARY 27, 2008 BY THE CAMPAIGN OF STEVE GREENBERG, CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS, EIGHTH DISTRICT, ILLINOIS

Serbian Caucus Co-Chair continues support for anti-American fundamentalists and is getting paid for it.

LAKE ZURICH, IL 2/27/08 – Eighth District Republican Nominee Steve Greenberg re-affirmed his support for the newly independent nation of Kosovo and called on Melissa Luburich Bean to follow his lead, by denouncing the Serbian violence against America and the people of Kosovo, withdrawing her sponsorship of controversial H. Res. 445 and by returning campaign donations from the anti-American Serbian Unity Conference.

The United States and eighteen other major world powers, including Great Britain, France, and Germany, have officially recognized Kosovo as a sovereign nation, but Melissa Luburich Bean stands against Kosovo’s freedom and independence. Last May Bean introduced H. Res. 445, which affirms Serbian control over Kosovo, by stating that “since 1999 Serbia has had no political, military, or economic presence in its [emphasis added] province of Kosovo,” and rejects future independence of Kosovo. Through her continued support of the resolution, Melissa Bean chooses to side with Serbian criminals who attacked America by breaking into and setting ablaze the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade last week while the Serbian government stood by and did nothing.

Bean’s support for anti-American Serbian fundamentalists runs even deeper; she has taken over $24,000 from members of the Serbian Unity Conference which “strongly denounces Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence as well as America’s subsequent recognition of it.” Bean even sent a letter to President George W. Bush urging him not to recognize Kosovo as an independent nation.

Steve Greenberg:

“Melissa Bean chose to side with oppression and anti-American fundamentalists, instead of freedom and independence. Melissa Bean places the interests of radical foreign nations above the interests of freedom and democracy. She must denounce the Serbian violence against Americans at our embassy. She must stand on the side of freedom and withdraw her sponsorship of controversial H. Res. 445 which does not support the American policy of recognition for Kosovo. Finally she should return all money sent to her by the Serbian Unity Conference.”

*****

What follows is a brief response to the points you make. I don’t anticipate that you’ll change your mind about any of this, but I wanted it out there for the benefit of the voters.

1. “Anti-American Serbian fundamentalists” – This is a new one. Serbs have been called many things over the course of the last two decades but this is definitely original. You are confusing the Christian Serbs with the Islamist anti-American fundamentalists that truly do pose a genuine threat to America, unlike the Serbs who have never been anything but loyal and true friends of America. Are the Serbs angry at America right now? You bet. Are the Serbs disappointed with America? You bet. Are they justified in feeling the way that they do, both here and abroad? You bet. Do they intend to hurt America? No way. That has never been, nor will ever be, the Serbian way.

2. “Melissa Luburich Bean” – Ironically, Mr. Greenberg, you issued your press release, very deliberately and calculatedly including Bean’s Serbian maiden name, on the very day that a huge controversy developed over the tactics used by the Tennessee Republican Party in their press release of February 25, 2008 smearing Barack Hussein Obama by taking cheap shots at his name and the clothing he was wearing on a trip to Africa in 2006. This controversy escalated to national proportions, condemnations were issued, pressure was levied, and the offensive press release was first altered then removed altogether from the Tennessee Republicans website. That’s why I wanted to make sure to include the entire content of your release in this letter. Just to make sure that it’s available in case the release disappears from your website.

3. “Serbian violence against America and the people of Kosovo” – Serbian violence against either of these two entities has been nothing compared to American violence against the Serbs, which included a 78 day bombing campaign in 1999 to bully them into submission. Serbian violence against the people of Kosovo? Serbs were and remain the “people of Kosovo”. If you are referring to the Albanian people of Kosovo, you need to take a closer look at the tactics of independence-minded, so called “freedom fighters” such as the Kosovo Liberation Army, not just in their campaign of terror against the Serbian civilians in Kosovo but against their own Albanian “Kosovars” who did not wish to go along with the separatist independence program.

4. “Controversial H. Res. 445” – This resolution, sponsored by Congresswoman Melissa Bean and Congressman Dan Burton, both co-chairs of the Serbian Caucus, is the only fair and just resolution set forth with regards to Serbia and Kosovo and the interests of all parties involved. The proposals put forth in this resolution were thoughtful, prudent, mature, wise, and fair to ALL parties. This resolution called for “a mutually agreed upon solution for the future status of Kosovo and rejected an imposed solution for Kosovo’s independence status.” How any reasonable person can take offense to this proposal as you have is beyond my comprehension, but given your repeated diatribes in your press release, it doesn’t surprise me.

Two other resolutions, that I’m sure you would agree with wholeheartedly, had no provisions for fairness and justice. Senate Resolution 135, sponsored by Senators Lieberman, Biden, McCain, and Smith, introduced in March of 2007, and House Resolution 309 of April 2007 sponsored by Congressman Engel and Mark Steven Kirk, who is currently running for congress in Illinois’ Tenth District, both unequivocally support “independence” for Kosovo, thus clearly favoring the Albanian separatists, many of whom can safely be regarded as terrorist elements in the Balkans.

5. “Returning campaign donations from the anti-American Serbian Unity Conference” – I may be wrong, but I don’t think there is such a thing as “Serbian Unity Conference”. There is, however, an organization called the “Serbian Unity Congress” and they have been very active in working with American politicians and policy makers to come to fair and just resolutions of the many problems that have developed in the former Yugoslavia. They also monitor what the politicians and policy makers are doing with regards to foreign policy and do what they can to educate those who truly have no understanding of issues specific to the Balkans but who are implementing misguided and potentially dangerous policies anyway. Never have they been anti-American. They are anti-ignorance.

You, Mr. Greenberg, are taking umbrage at Melissa Bean receiving campaign donations in the amount of $24,000 and you are demanding that she return it to this organization? Have you ever done an audit of what politicians Lieberman, McCain and others have received from the Albanian lobby? I can assure you that it is considerably more than $24,000 and I can assure you that the Albanian lobby is not overwhelmingly concerned with American interests.

Congresswoman Melissa Bean is not just taking the donated money and running with it, like other politicians have done. She is not just taking money from Serbs then forgetting and conveniently ignoring the fact that she is of Serbian descent when it comes to representing Serbian American interests. With attacks such as yours on “nationality” and “heritage”, it’s almost understandable that politicians of Serbian descent would choose to keep their “identity” hidden. This is what makes me proud of Melissa Bean. She is not ashamed of her heritage. And she is not afraid to publicly do what is right.

She is “against” America supporting the imposed independence of Kosovo not because she is Serbian, but because it’s a bad, misguided foreign policy decision. There are others, such as former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton who are “against” America supporting Kosovo’s independence. It’s just a hunch, but it’s likely they don’t have a drop of Serbian blood in them. There are other learned people, non-Serbs, who have vehemently decried America’s decision to support Kosovo independence. On what basis would you be attacking them since you would not be able to take cheap shots at their name or their heritage or their nationality?

Melissa Bean’s spokesman responded to your attacks appropriately by stating that the Congresswoman “does not respond to ethnically and religiously divisive statements.” She didn’t engage you, Mr. Greenberg. I’m proud of her for that as well.

6. “Melissa Bean chooses to side with Serbian criminals who attacked America…while the Serbian government stood by and did nothing” –The Serbs who “attacked” the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade after America officially recognized Kosovo as a sovereign nation in February were only a small portion of the Serbs who took to the streets peacefully to protest. The peaceful protestors did not get the media attention, however, because that would not fit the media’s agenda of presenting Serbs in the most negative light possible – as uncivilized, brutal people. The “attackers” were deemed “thugs” by their own people and the Serbian authorities have indeed gone after the “criminals” and have proceeded appropriately.

There may come a time, Mr. Greenberg, when different factions in the United States decide they want to “secede” from America (and, indeed, it has happened before with incredibly destructive, bloody consequences), and if that does happen, I’m sure that the American people will respond passionately, just as the Serbian people did in Serbia.

7. “The interests of radical foreign nations above the interests of freedom and democracy” -- Serbia, Mr. Greenberg, is not the “radical foreign nation” you need to be worried about. Kosovo, now a brand new “nation”, is the “radical foreign nation” you need to be worried about. Let us watch just how much “freedom and democracy” the new “Kosovar” leaders are going to allow their newly “independent” people to enjoy.

Mr. Greenberg,

My father became a citizen of the United States of America in 1955. He voted for the first time in the general elections of 1956. His first vote ever was for republican candidate General Dwight D. Eisenhower. He has voted republican ever since. My mother has been a staunch republican all of her adult life as well. Both are Serbian. Both are Americans. Only on rare occasions and with great difficulty have they voted for anyone but the republican candidates over the years. If you were to take a census of the Serbs in the United States you would probably discover that the majority of them have and do vote republican. In the most recent primaries my father had no problem voting for you. That was before your Press Release of February 27th, 2008. He has since experienced a change of heart and his final vote will reflect that.

Unfortunately, for the Serbian citizens of the United States, no party is “the lesser of two evils” anymore. Both democratic and republican politicians and policymakers have made grievous mistakes in alienating the Serbian constituency. Considering how important “a few votes” can be in determining the outcome of a political race, the couple of million Serbs living in this country could very well make a difference. They don’t have the political power or voice that other ethnic groups have in America, but I think it will turn out that American policymakers should have heeded Serbian warnings and advice about how to proceed in the Balkans. I think, too, that of all the ethnic groups from the former Yugoslavia, it is the Serbs who have been the most loyal to America. Unfortunately that loyalty has not counted for much. But Serbian votes do count, and that’s something you need to think about.

One other thing you need to consider, especially if you do succeed in winning the election, is money -- American money that will be going to the Kosovars to sustain the new nation that America so quickly and easily recognized. Right now it’s being estimated that Kosovo will need $2 billion in foreign aid over the course of the next few years to sustain it. That’s just an estimate. We all know how that goes. Whatever you think it’s going to cost, it’ll end up costing more. Although it’s being “recommended” by senior U.S. officials that Europe fund half that amount with the balance to be funded by the U.S. and various financial institutions, as an American tax-payer this concerns me. It’s one thing to accept my tax dollars being used to fund American issues. It’s another thing entirely to part with my money so that Kosovo can be sustained, especially considering that I’m not keen on funding a newly established Islamist state. I’ll let you ponder the words of Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Dan Fried as he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 4th:

"'We cannot simply assume that Kosovo is on autopilot and walk away. This is going to take high-level sustained attention through the end of this administration and into the next.'

Fried stressed the $2 billion was a "crude estimate." To help make Kosovo economically viable, the United States will participate in a major donors' conference on Kosovo in June, he said. He said Congress had already appropriated $350 million in aid for Kosovo."

Source: Susan Cornwell, Reuters

Mr. Greenberg,

You are uninformed about Kosovo. You are misguided, to say the least, in your condemnation of Serbia, the Serbs, and your political opponent in the Eighth District of Illinois, Congresswoman Melissa Luburich Bean. Your press release was ignorant and your tactics cheap. She has risen above your attacks and has not dignified your bigotry with a response. I, however, feel that your bigotry deserved a response. I hope you will not dismiss this letter on the basis that I have a Serbian name. I love my name. I’m proud of it. I’m proud of my heritage. I’m proud of my parents and of my extended Serbian family, both those who never came to America and those who did, becoming law-abiding, English speaking, hard working people of integrity with a deeply felt loyalty to their new home. It is from my Serbian parents that I learned to appreciate just how great this country America was, and still is, no matter what.

We are patriots, Mr. Greenberg. And so is Melissa Bean. She is exercising her right and her obligation to do what is fair and right and just. She had the courage to put herself on the line, despite the attacks that she knew would come from people like you.

When the consequences of the U.S. Kosovo policy play out, we will see who was right and who was wrong. By then, it will be too late for any retractions.

Mr. Greenberg is the very epitome of ignorance and racism.Like so many other clueless politicians and journalists, he is part of the most shameless slander and propaganda campaign since Goebbels in WWII (a war in which the Serbs steadfastly stood beside the Allies, and in fact rescued over 500 downed American fliers from; guess who?... the Albanian fascist Nazis who were Hitler's most prolific murderers and ethnic cleansers!) If Mr. Greenberg would read a history book or two, instead of the National Enquirer, he might be qualified to comment on the Balkan mess. And talk about violence and crimes against Americans? Let's not forget that, in violation of a host of international laws, the U.S. government savagely bombed the civilian population of Belgrade, hundreds of miles away from Kosovo, for 78 straight days, INCLUDING EASTER SUNDAY!! (something which even Hitler refused to do!) in order to force the Serbs to capitulate to the whims of Bill Clinton and "Mad Madeline" Albright. Yet, can you show me just one example of any Serb on this planet conducting any terrorist attack on any American? Or anyone else, for that matter? Yet, several of the 9/11 hijackers and most of the Madrid subway bombers were Albanian Muslim extremists from, you guessed it... Kosovo! Whose side are you on, Mr. Greenberg?
Nick Duke

Embassy fire? Remember Herschel Grynszpan in the German Embassy in Paris 1938? In WW II the Serbs (with suffix -ICH) saved Jews. In 1992, when Islamists, smiled on by Bush Sr, took over Bosnia, Jews in Sarajevo got on busses hired by Croatian-Jewish professor Emil Vlajki for the EXODUS to Belgrade in Serbia, the only multi-ethnic state in "the Western Balkans". Slovenia has "erased" tens of thousands of non-Slovenes from jobs, pensions and property rights. Croatia, in an ethnic cleansing directed by US Rent-a-Generals MPRInc. (like Blackwater) which expelled a quarter million Serbs from their lands, holds Slovene fishermen in prison for fishing in "Croatian waters". Osaqma bin Laden has a Bosnian passport and "worked" in Bosnia several times with his Saudi mujahedin, killing Serbs in their own lands and laying bombs in city market places, killing Muslims and Christians. Who else blows up market places? 50 years ago a Baptist told me "I would EVEN vote for a Jew for president, but not a Catholic." This Irish Catholic says Hooray For The Serbs: they fought Osama bin Laden. Bill Clinton could have nabbed Osama a dozen times. He didn't; he wouldn't.

I do who hope that voters in the 8th District see Greenberg for the racist loser that he is. Greenberg has nothing else to say and no other platform than to attack Bean in the dirtiest way that he can -- and this is a really cheap shot.

There is no "Serbian Unity Congress PAC", period. So what Greenberg is attacking Bean on is "being a Serbian Orthodox Christian" and raising money from other "Serbian Orthodox Christians" -- and this is a sin? If that is the case, then Greenberg needs to give back all the campaign money that he has raised from every Jew who contributed to him, not mention the documented $9,200 that he has received from the Republican Jewish Coalition PAC.

This whole Greenberg witch-hunt of Bean is insane and unbelievable in 21st century America! It makes me sick to my stomach to even think about!

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"Change of Subject" by Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist Eric Zorn contains observations, reports, tips, referrals and tirades, though not necessarily in that order. Links will tend to expire, so seize the day. For an archive of Zorn's latest Tribune columns click here. An explanation of the title of this blog is here. If you have other questions, suggestions or comments, send e-mail to ericzorn at gmail.com.
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